Kingstonian 1-2 St Albans City
K'S MAD TO MISS HATTERS

St Albans' Pelayo Gomez was just eight years old last time Ks reached the final qualifying round of the FA Cup and two impressive goals from the Spanish teenager, on loan from Brentford, again denied Ks their shot at making the first round proper.

Alan Dowson was unhappy with a frustrating display from Ks, who regularly got little return from long balls against a tall visiting backline.

The opening forty minutes of the game were utterly dominated by St Albans, who had the extra motivation of the opportunity to play neighbours Luton Town in the next round. The ball was in Rob Tolfrey's net as early as the fifth minute, though Adam Martin's close-range strike was ruled out for handball, before Gomez forced Tolfrey into a sharp save at the near post.

Gomez came close again from distance before giving St Albans the lead on 17 minutes. He cut in from the right and from near the corner of the penalty box, curled a perfect chip into the far corner of Tolfrey's goal.

Ks reverted to 4-4-2, moving Adam Thompson up the pitch as they sought to get into the game. Hall fired over from distance but it was St Albans who remained on top, with Pelayo feeding James Fisher who came close and then Rob Martin lobbing onto the bar.

It wasn't until the final five minutes of the half that Ks finally got a grip on proceedings, and managed to earn an unlikely equaliser before the break. First, Lodge got behind the visiting defence down the left and crossed for Traynor, though the striker was unable to shoot first time and goalkeeper Bastock narrowed the angle and saved with his legs. Two minutes later though, Bastock could only palm a fizzing Traynor cross out to Lodge, who was felled by Fisher before he could fire into the unguarded net. Traynor has not looked full of confidence lately, but proved customarily reliable from the inevitable penalty.

Ks looked brighter after the interval and after Lodge led a strong break, Tom Bird sprinted nearly the full length of the pitch to shoot at the far post. His effort went under Bastock, but substitute Ben Martin cleared off the line. Adam Martin flashed a cross across Tolfrey's goal as the Saints looked dangerous on the break, before Adam Thompson muscled through from a Tobi Jinadu long ball but fired spectacularly wide.

Thompson came closer five minutes later from a Matt Gray corner but James Fisher blocked his header. This went unrecognised by referee Oleksandr Soliy, of Molesey 2006 infamy, who declined to award a corner.

On 72 minutes the visitors took the lead, after Gomez again drifted in from the right and beat Tolfrey with a low effort at the near post. Traynor fired over as Ks sought an immediate riposte, while no-one was able to get on the end of a Moses Odubajo cross to wrap the game up for the visitors.

Ks made little headway until injury time, when Lodge broke through to win the first of what would prove to be a succession of corners. With Tolfrey up in the St Albans box, a Max Hustwick header was somehow flicked over the bar by Bastock, Gray had an effort blocked for another corner and then Jinadu was at the heart of another goalmouth scramble. St Albans hacked the ball away though and held on to ensure that they, and not Ks, will go on to the big game at Luton.